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The Danube was one of the highlights at the Global
Environment Facility’s (GEF) Third Biennial International
Water (IW) Conference held in Salvador, Brazil,
this June. The venue was an excellent opportunity to
showcase the considerable cooperation and advances in
river management achieved by the Danube countries
and the ICPDR – supported by the UNDP/GEF Danube
Regional Project (DRP).
The DRP has always been seen by the GEF IW community
as one of its flagship projects, and this year’s
conference provided the opportunity to share some of
the important lessons learnt in the Danube Basin that
may be of benefit to other IW projects.
The DRP was invited to present at the opening plenary
session. My goal for this presentation was first and
foremost to raise awareness of the significant achievements
of the Danube countries in preparing the Roof
Report required to meet the obligations of the EU Water
Framework Directive – perhaps the most comprehensive
water legislation in the world. I stressed how
advanced the Danube Basin is in terms of management
compared to other complex international river systems.
The importance of the Danube Protection Convention
and the role of the ICPDR in delivering effective
international, institutional coordination in river basin
management were fundamental here.
There was also significant interest in the 95 million
USD ‘GEF Strategic Partnership for Nutrient Reduction
in the Danube/Black Sea Basin’, which includes
the DRP. The partnership is one of GEF‘s largest and
most ambitious water-related projects in the world. It
supports the goals of the Commissions for the Danube
and Black Sea to reduce nutrient and toxic loads to
the levels necessary to allow Black Sea ecosystems to
recover to conditions in the 1960s. At the conference,
it was seen as a pioneering initiative and innovative
tool to strengthen synergies among different GEF
interventions in the IW Programme. It is also now an
example for developing similar partnerships in other
world regions.
UNDP/GEF is proud to support work in the Danube
and we are proud of the successes – jointly achieved
with the countries of the Danube River Basin. We
look forward to presenting even more groundbreaking
achievements at the 2007 IW conference.
Ivan Zavadsky,
Project Manager
UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project
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The production of this issue was made possible through financial
support from the UNDP/GEF Danube Regional Project. |
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